Fairground Sound Library

I recorded this library across two years at the Canadian National Exhibition, a huge two-week fair that takes place at the end of summer in Toronto. It was a challenging shoot because fairgrounds are typically saturated with bass beats. So, I strategically and inconspicuously maneuvered to capture clean, music-free atmospheres. Here are some images from those field recording sessions:

Fairground Ride 1

Fairground Ride 2

Fairground Ride 3

I recorded discrete areas of the fair: the rides, the games, the children’s area, exhibition halls, the food building, and more. There are exterior and interior takes. There are sounds clips of jubilant crowds playing BB gun, crown and anchor, and bingo games. Children shriek and scream on swooping rides. Crowds shuffle while strolling through the midway. There are takes of barkers, salespeople, and excited funfair crowds.

Passenger Trains 1 Sound Collection

The field recordings in this collection were gathered over five years while riding trains throughout Ontario, Canada. The package gathers sound effects from two categories of trains: national “passenger” trains, and regional “commuter” trains.

I like this collection because it offers two angles on train recordings. It includes exterior takes of these trains approaching, idling, passing, and departing. I love the sound of rail grinds, air chuffs, and engine textures. It also includes clean interior takes, too. I hung out in first class, economy, and between cars to record clips of the train moving at various speeds. Most importantly, these takes do not have any crowd on them, so they will easily slip into your tracks to support your scenes.

Freight Trains 1 Sound Library

The last of today’s sound libraries is the Freight Trains 1 Library Builder collection. To capture this library, I stalked train yards and railways, often waiting hours for trains to arrive.

They’re some of my favourite recordings. I really enjoyed capturing the power of these diesel-electric locomotives as they arrived, idled, passed, and departed with groans, grumbles, and moans in excess of 4,000 horsepower. There are a few ambient train yard clips that join focused, isolated engine recordings. Here are some shots of the trains I recorded:

ES44AC freight train approach

Idling Locomotive 1

Idling Locomotive 2

The engines weren’t the only focus. I also captured the long lines of the freight cars they pulled. The collection includes a variety of car types passing, including tankers, autoracks, and others. There’s some really cool texture in the squeaks and grinds in these tracks. You can hear that in the preview, below.